1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to information handling systems in rack domains and more particularly to a system and method for improved pathway decision forwarding for rack domains.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In particular, data centers have been established that may include large pluralities of individual information handling systems to provide scalable computing and network communication resources. These data centers are typically designed to optimize consumption and/or availability of resources such as space, energy, power consumption, and various types of communication links.
As used herein, the term ‘data center’ shall also refer to so called “server farms” that comprise pluralities of individual information handling systems in a rack format, also referred to herein as a “rack domain”. The rack format may include rows of so-called “blade servers” (among other types of hardware) representing information handling systems of a form factor to install in an industrial rack and/or bus system. In addition to blade servers and/or different types of information handling systems, network switches may be installed within the racks of a rack domain to enable network connectivity for groups and/or sub-groups of the information handling systems in the rack domain.
Wide-area networks that connect entire data centers with one another may exhibit different operational conditions than data center networks connecting local nodes to form a rack domain of a given data center. It is noted that network traffic is routed through both wide-area networks and data center networks when being processed and transmitted among different data centers. The differing operational conditions may arise from unique architecture and topology associated with each type of network, respectively.
In particular, data center networks, including so-called “intra-rack networks”, may provide network connectivity for local nodes over dedicated links, and may often be implemented with a minimum of additional services or complexity, beyond certain given functionality. For example, certain data center networks may be tiered, highly scalable, traditionally forwarded/routed using Layer 2/Layer 3 switching and routing elements (as given by the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, also referred to as ISO/IEC 7498-1), may use standard network protocols, and may provide various overlays for services and security. Conventional networking technologies and/or networking technologies used particularly for wide-area networking, for example, may not address certain specific operational conditions found within rack domains of a data center.